Imagine this: The team has gathered around the meeting table to discuss a new campaign. It’s early, but the smell of fresh-brewed coffee is in the air and several members of your team from sales to marketing have arrived in a shared collaborative spirit. Everyone is clear on the company’s big important goal, objectives and strategies that will give them the traction to succeed. The energy is high, and you know that the brand has been developed to represent the true essence of the organization. It’s clear through differentiation that your competitors have got nothing on this team and what you do for your target audience.

A solid marketing plan should contain everything you need to achieve and even exceed your organizational goals. The priorities for your plan are that it is actionable, understandable and concise.

How do you know you are not overspending on the wrong marketing communications and leaving money on the table with unrealized ROI? How can you be certain there are not any gaps in marketing budget allocation that might only be revealed once you have failed to meet your annual revenue goal?

In this article we illustrate the opportunity to tell a cohesive story across the full experience of the resident and family journey into your community. At each point, we detail how to expand on that story at various points in the journey.

There are many common misconceptions about marketing plans that can lead organizations to critical missteps that ultimately harm their bottom lines. Here are some of the common misconceptions about marketing plans and why they are false.

You cannot get to where you are going without first understanding where you have been. A thorough review will offer up keen insights into what worked well in the past, what to replicate, what to adjust and how to build a stronger marketing machine. Empower each of your key people to complete various parts of the review.

Whether your communities handle digital marketing internally or you are working with an agency, it’s important to consistently gauge the performance and success of your efforts by monitoring the metrics. Doing so will enable you to see a more complete picture of your marketing presence, allowing you to reallocate spend into the areas that are successful and improve or eliminate those that aren’t working.

With your vision clearly articulated and shared, revisit your SWOT analysis with a particular focus on opportunities. Those you serve have different needs now, and the best way to uncover those new needs is with programmatic surveys. From survey data, you see clearly the opportunities your organization has (and does not have) for meeting those needs.

A compass is arguably the most important tool an explorer can have. Its dependable magnetic alignment reveals the right path even if astronomical indicators like the North Star are obscured by weather. Just as it guides the plight of the adventurer, a dependable directional cue is also invaluable in business. These “True North metrics” can help an organization determine where they are and how to get where they’d like to be.